Financial markets have experienced unprecedented transformations, signs of which have emerged since the late 1970s. In recent years substantial consolidation occurred. In response to changes in macroeconomic variables, such as GDP, industrial production, inflation and the political business...

This Article attempts to define hedge funds and to distinguish them from a variety of similar investment funds. After reviewing the hedge fund definition in the U.S. and the EU, this Article argues that the current regulatory framework, which defines hedge funds by reference to what they are not...

Although banks are central to the economic development and growth of emerging markets (Benston, 2004), most studies have not investigated the determinants of stock returns of this sector in these countries. This study, contributes to the literature in finance by investigating and identifying...

Conventional financial theory considers ex-ante that risk, generally measured by the volatility, has to be appropriately rewarded by expected returns. In modern financial markets, there are countless quantitative and systematic strategies which may test and eventually lead to excess returns when...

In this study, I investigate the performance of five categories of U.S. domestic equity mutual funds during the recessions of 1990 and 2001 and during the 12 months following each recession. I show that recessions identified by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) are not all the same...